SCTE Foundation and The WICT Network Announce Women’s TechConnect Cohort

The SCTE Foundation and The WICT Network proudly announced their Women’s TechConnect cohort class 2024-2025. Since 2011, the Women's TechConnect initiative has been providing mentoring relationships between senior and rising professionals to help educate and retain women in the technology fields of the cable industry. The mentors and mentees enrolled in the 2024-25 class recently met one another for the first time during The WICT Network’s 2024 Leadership Conference in New York City. Mentees will maintain their mentoring relationship monthly and will attend quarterly learning webinars where they will network with other mentees, hear from guest speakers, and receive additional resources. The Women’s TechConnect program will conclude with a graduation session at the SCTE TechExpo the week of September 29, 2025.

The current Women’s TechConnect class includes 20 mentees: Chereese Creel, Jessica Hanks, Tori Berube, and Mandy Motahari of Cox Communications; Toya Holt, Melissa Paul, Suzanne Romano, and Patricia Kearney of Warner Bros. Discovery; Leah Scholz and Paloma Hawn of GCI; Rebecca Warren, Stephanie Christianson, Brenna Hornbaker, and Deena Taylor-Straggi of Astound Broadband; Bianca Betances of Charter; Tanya Lynn, of Comcast; Stacy Venanzi of Charter—Spectrum; Morgan Newman, of INSP, LLC; Carrie Warren of CableLabs; and Deanna Benjamin of ESPN.

The 2024-25 roster of Women’s TechConnect mentors are: Brooke McAnaney, GVP, Content Security at Warner Bros. Discovery; Dani Kimmell, VP, AI & Data Strategy at Cox Communications; Debbie Fitzgerald, Distinguished Technologist and Director at CableLabs; Eilisa Reid GVP, Service Delivery Applications at Charter Communications; Elizabeth Bierman, Vice President of Engineering at Comcast; Glenda Bough, Executive Director, Engineering Ops at Comcast; Jackie Boudreau, Vice President, Engineering – XOC at Comcast Communications; Janine Bailey, Customer Solutions Leader, Media & Entertainment at Amazon Web Services; Kim Keever, SVP, Security, Analytics and Technology Services and CISO at Cox Communications; Kristell Janusz, SVP, Network Engineering at Astound Broadband; Leslie Gilchrist, AVP, Technology - Tools Strategy & Automation for Service Assurance at Cox Communications; Lori Spencer, SVP and Chief People Officer at CableLabs; Megan Dover, VP, Product Development & Management at Cox Communications; Mickie Calkins, Vice President, Strategic Partnerships at CableLabs; Nomi Bergman, President at Advance Newhouse Investment Partnership; Sally Huriaux, VP, Engineering Operations at Comcast; Sandy Howe, Board Director and Founder at Coravant; Sheetal Gattani, VP, eProcurement Solutions & Analytics at Charter Communications; Theresa Hennesy, Technology Leadership Consultant at Somos, Inc.; and Tracey Dwyer, Senior Manager of Solutions Management at Amazon Web Services.

Created to develop a formal mentoring relationship between top-ranking and high-potential women in cable technology, the goal of the Women’s TechConnect program is to provide a crucial support system to better equip mentees to overcome workplace challenges, while helping them rise through the industry ranks to more senior level assignments. Applications for the 2025/2026 program will open in summer 2025. For more information or questions, please contact: Megan Marksberry, AVP, Program Administration, The WICT Network (mmarksberry@wict.org).

Additionally, the SCTE Foundation proudly supports two tech-focused fellowships offered by The WICT Network: The Nomi M. Bergman Fellowship, which focuses on high-potential women working in technology companies; and the Martha Soehren Women Veterans Fellowship, aimed at high-potential women veterans employed by programming companies, operators, or technology firms.

By supporting the SCTE Foundation, companies and individuals can contribute directly to vital diversity efforts, helping to build a stronger and more inclusive workforce.